If you type a page name ending in .asp the ASP interpreter takes control and serves the page… so how do you get Gotham to get in the way and do its magic? There are two places IIS needs to be told: within the IIS snap-in and in the web.config. It sounds complicated, but it isn't really.

Configuring the IIS Snap-in

In the IIS snap-in, this is the way 'regular' ASP is configured:

This is reached by 'Start' > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services. Then expand the node on the left to find the default web site. Then Default Web Site > Properties > Home Directory > Configuration

When an .asp file is requested, asp.dll takes over the request and runs your web page. We need to tell the system that .NET should handle that request

The filename in the executable should be the same as for the .aspx file mapping. On a .NET 2.0 system that is ‘C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll’

Configuring web.config

If you are an ASP programmer your web sites probably do not have web.config files. A web.config file sits in every ASP.NET web site. It is simply a list of settings, some of which ASP.NET uses and some of which your code can use. You will find the bare bones web.config file in the Gotham directory -- you can just copy it into your web sites root directory.

The bit that matters in the web.config file is at the bottom

 <httpHandlers>
   <add verb="*" path="*.asp" type="GothamIIS.HandlerFactory, IISInterface" />
 </httpHandlers>

What this means is: if the verb is * (i.e. anything like get, post, head) and the file ends in *.asp then pass control to the class GothamIIS.HandlerFactory in the assembly IISInterface. For the sake of trying Gotham the details do not matter.